PROGRAM NOTES BY DR. RICHARD E. RODDA

Program 5 theme passes into the middle strings before the violins once again take up the strain to bring Sospiri to its quiet, Sospiri, Op. 70 moving close. Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 Composed in 1914. Edward Elgar Premiered on August 15, 1914 in London, conducted by Sir Henry J. Wood. Composed in 1918-1919. Premiered on October 27, 1919 in London, conducted Though the name of Elgar brings to mind the large by the composer with Felix Salmond as soloist. compositions for which he is most widely known — the two Symphonies, the Concertos for Violin and for Cello, It seemed that Elgar’s world was crumbling in 1918. the “Enigma” Variations — he was also recognized by The four years of war had left him, as so many others, the audiences of his day for his many small orchestral weary and numb from the crush of events. Many of his works. More than once accused of writing beneath his friends of German ancestry were put through a bad time abilities in such works as the wildly popular Pomp and in England during those years; others whom he knew Circumstance Marches, he responded, “I look on the were killed or maimed in action. The traditional founda- composer’s vocation as the old troubadours and bards tions of the British political system were skewed by the did.... I know that there are a lot of people who like to rise of socialism directly after the war, and Elgar saw celebrate events with music. To these people I have his beloved Edwardian world drawing to a close. (He given tunes. Is that wrong? Why should I write a fugue resembles that titan among fin-de-siècle musicians, or something that won’t appeal to anyone, when the Gustav Mahler, in his mourning of a passing age.) His people yearn for things which can stir them?” He com- music seemed anachronistic in an era of polychords and posed many such short occasional pieces throughout dodecaphony, a remnant of stuffy conservatism, and his life. His first professional position after finishing his his 70th birthday concert in Queen’s Hall attracted only training was as director of music at the Powick Lunatic half a house. The health of his wife, his chief helpmate, Asylum, where he not only conducted the band made up inspiration and critic, began to fail, and with her passing of inmates and attendants, but also composed sheaves in 1920, Elgar virtually stopped composing. The Cello of quadrilles for their use at five shillings each. (His be- Concerto, written just before his wife’s death, is Elgar’s nighted superior believed that the quadrille was the only last major work, and seems both to summarize his disil- type of music the residents of the establishment could lusion over the calamities of World War I and to presage appreciate.) Elgar’s last completed work, Mina, was a the unhappiness of his last years. tonal portrait of his Cairn terrier. Large sections of the Concerto are given over to the Among these instrumental miniatures the one en- solitary ruminations of the cello in the form of recitative- titled Sospiri (“Sighs”) holds a special place by virtue of like passages, such as the one that opens the work. The its thoughtful intensity. It is a musical tribute to two of forms of the Concerto’s four movements only suggest Elgar’s dearest friends. The score was dedicated to W.H. traditional models in their epigrammatic concentration. Reed, the composer’s close companion (and eventual The first movement is a ternary structure (A–B–A), com- biographer) and a fine violinist, who was concertmas- mencing after the opening recitative. A limpid, undulat- ter of the London Symphony Orchestra during the time ing theme in 9/8 (Moderato) is given by the lower strings when that organization was performing and recording as the material for the first and third sections of the form, many of Elgar’s works. It was Reed who gave Elgar while a related melody (12/8, with dotted rhythms) ap- invaluable advice during the composition of the Violin pears first in the woodwinds in the central portion. Concerto in 1910, four years before Sospiri was written. The first movement is linked directly to the second The subdued mood of Sospiri, however, seems to have (Allegro molto). It takes several tries before the music been occasioned by the death of Julia Worthington, an of the second movement is able to maintain its forward American who was an intimate friend of the Elgar family motion, but when it does, it proves to be a skittering, and one of that day’s most prominent hostesses. Of the moto perpetuo display piece for the soloist. It is music, nature of this expressive composition, Michael Kennedy however, which, for all its hectic activity, seems strangely wrote, “It is, though short, a major work of grave beauty, earth-bound, a sort of wild merriment not quite capable an epitome of Elgar’s ability to express nostalgic regret.” of banishing the dolorous thoughts of the opening move- In form and expression, Sospiri is similar to a slow ment. The almost-motionless stillness of the follow- symphonic movement. It begins with a single preludial ing Adagio returns to the introspection of the opening chord, after which the violins sing a tender melody movement. It, in the words of Herbert Byard, “seems to over an accompaniment of harp and sustained strings. express the grief that is too deep for tears.” The finale, The music becomes more impassioned, with frequent like the opening, is prefaced by a recitative for the solo- thematic interchanges among the strings, until it reaches ist. The movement’s form following this introductory sec- a dynamic climax that is reinforced by the re-entry of tion is based on the Classical rondo, and makes a valiant the harp. Against a tremulous background, the plaintive attempt at the “hail-and-well-met” vigor of Elgar’s earlier march music. Like the scherzando second movement,

— 18 — however, it seems more a nostalgic recollection of past whole orchestra introduces the second part, The Triton abilities than a display of remaining powers. Toward the Fountain. It is like a joyous call, summoning troops of end, the stillness of the third movement creeps over the naiads and tritons, who come running up, pursuing each music, and the soloist indulges in an extended soliloquy. other and mingling in a frenzied dance between the jets Brief bits of earlier movements are remembered before a of water. final recall of the fast rondo music closes this thoughtful “Next there appears a solemn theme borne on the Concerto. undulations of the orchestra. It is the fountain of Trevi at mid-day. The solemn theme, passing from the woodwind The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome to the brass instruments, assumes a triumphal character. Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) Trumpets peal: across the radiant surface of the water there passes Neptune’s chariot drawn by sea-horses The Fountains of Rome was composed in 1916, and and followed by a train of sirens and tritons. The proces- premiered on March 11, 1917, conducted by Antonio sion then vanishes while faint trumpet blasts resound in Guarnieri. the distance. The Pines of Rome was composed in 1923-1924, and “The fourth part, The Villa Medici Fountain, is an- premiered on December 14, 1924 in Rome, conducted nounced by a sad theme which rises above a subdued by Bernardino Molinari. warbling. It is the nostalgic hour of sunset. The air is full of the sound of tolling bells, birds twittering, leaves The Fountains of Rome is the earliest of the Roman rustling. Then all dies peacefully into the silence of the trilogy of symphonic poems by which Respighi is primar- night.” ily represented in the world’s concert halls. (The Pines of * * * Rome followed in 1924, Roman Festivals in 1929.) It was also his first great public success, though his notoriety Of The Pines of Rome, the second work of Respighi’s was not achieved without a certain difficulty. Toscanini trilogy on Roman subjects, the composer wrote (in the had agreed to conduct the premiere of the Fountains, third person): “While in his preceding work, The Foun- late in 1916. Germany and Italy were at war then, and tains of Rome, the composer sought to reproduce by there had been recent bombings of Italian towns that re- means of tone an impression of nature, in The Pines of sulted in heavy casualties. Despite heated anti-German Rome he uses nature as a point of departure in order feelings, however, Toscanini refused to drop from his to recall memories and visions. The centuries-old trees programs selections by that arch Teuton Richard Wag- that dominate so characteristically the Roman landscape ner. When he began Siegfried’s Funeral March on one become testimony for the principal events in Roman November concert, grumbling arose in the audience, life.” Respighi collected material for this work for some and finally erupted with a shout from the balcony: “This time. His wife, Elsa, recalled in her short biography of piece is for the Paduan dead.” The infuriated Toscanini her husband that he had asked her in 1920 to sing some hurled his baton at the unruly audience and stormed off songs from her days of childhood play in the garden of the stage and out of Rome. Plans for the premiere of the Villa Borghese. She was wonderfully surprised when The Fountains of Rome were therefore delayed, and the they emerged four years later in the first section of The work had to wait until the following March to be heard, Pines of Rome. in a concert conducted by Antonio Guarnieri. Respighi’s Respighi supplied the following synopsis of the four wife, Elsa, reported that the premiere was not a success. continuous sections of The Pines of Rome as a preface Indeed, the composer, whose music had not yet found to the score: much favor, expected as much. Trying to make light of “1. The Pines of the Villa Borghese. Children are at the possibility of failure, he warned one of his friends to play in the pine grove of the Villa Borghese, dancing the “take your umbrella and galoshes” to the premiere of Italian equivalent of ‘Ring around the Rosy’; mimicking this modern-day “Water Music.” It was with Toscanini’s marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking performances in Milan and Rome of the following year like swallows at evening; and they disappear. Suddenly that The Fountains of Rome — and Respighi’s reputation the scene changes to ... — were established. “2. The Pines near a Catacomb. We see the shadows Respighi prefaced the orchestral score of The Foun- of the pines, which overhang the entrance of a cata- tains of Rome with the following description of the comb. From the depths rises a chant which re-echoes music: solemnly, like a hymn, and is then mysteriously silenced. “In this symphonic poem, the composer has endeav- “3. The Pines of the Janiculum. There is a thrill in the ored to give expression to the sentiments and visions air. The full moon reveals the profile of the pines of Giani- suggested to him by four of Rome’s fountains contem- colo’s Hill. A nightingale sings. plated at the hour in which their character is most in har- “4. The Pines of the Appian Way. Misty dawn on the mony with the surrounding landscape, or in which their Appian Way. The tragic country is guarded by solitary beauty appears most impressive to the observer. pines. Indistinctly, incessantly, the rhythm of innumerable “The first part of the poem, inspired by the fountain steps. There appears a vision of past glories; trumpets of Valle Giulia, depicts a pastoral landscape: droves of blare, and the army of the Consul advances brilliantly cattle pass and disappear in the fresh damp mists of a in the grandeur of a newly risen sun toward the Sacred Roman dawn. Way, mounting in triumph the Capitoline Hill.” “A sudden loud and insistent blast of horns above the ©2015 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

— 19 —